How the world's largest corporation broke down, and why the human cost of repairs will be brutal

THE END CAME WITH ALL THE BITTERNESS of a military surrender. For weeks General Motors chairman Robert Stempel had tried to ignore the signals of discontent radiating from a hostile band of outside directors. When Stempel was hospitalized with an attack of high blood pressure, board members did not bother to phone him get-well wishes. When rumors flew that Stempel was about to be ousted, the board issued a statement that conspicuously lacked a denial. Finally, Stempel, 59, bowed to a point-blank demand from a third-generation GM board member, who told him it was time to leave the post he had...